Two years ago today, we were entering Day Five of our ordeal from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that hammered western North Carolina.  This storm brought unprecedented rainfall (up to 28 inches in 24 hours) and completely washed away towns, roads, railroads and utilities throughout the area.  We’ve never experienced anything like it.

Fortunately, we were prepared better than most for such an event.  Of course the power went out, but so did cellular service and municipal water and sewer.  For some of us, this lasted for weeks.  In our case, we had our Goal Zero solar generator which provided ample power for our radios, lighting and even making coffee in the mornings.  Cooking was fine over the fire and we dipped into some of our supplies which turned out to be fine.  As for water, when I went outside to check on our rain barrels, finding them full of fresh water was like discovering gold!  We could flush the toilets!  We were able to purify water using our Berkey water filter, though we ended up with more bottled water than we could have imagined.

The outpouring of support from around the country was overwhelming.  But in the event of a major regional grid down situation, help would not be able to come from the outside.  So what would you do for food?  Most homes have only a few days’ worth of food on hand.  And as we found, the area grocery stores were wiped out and didn’t reopen for quite some time.  At least one of them never came back.

Legacy Foods is a good option to consider.  These foods are freeze dried and dehydrated meals that only require water.  Their shelf life is 25 years and they are packed with nutrition.  We had our share of these and I can say they taste relatively good for what they are.  This is especially true if you find that your local grocery store is gone.  Its not inexpensive, but look at it as an investment for the inevitable rainy day.

There are many different brands such as Mountain House, Wise and others, but Legacy seems to provide the most calories and ounces per dollar than most.  So give it try.  At least purchase enough for 30 days.  Believe me, when the power goes down in your entire area for weeks on end, you’ll be glad you did.  FYI, we get no kind of compensation for this endorsement.